How social contagions shape collective consensus in the presence of scale-free networks

How social contagions shape collective consensus in the presence of scale-free networks | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article How social contagions shape collective consensus in the presence of scale-free networks Mohammad Savari, Nikolaj Horsevad, Robert E. Kooij, Mohammadreza Chamanbaz, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7635636/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Consensus-building can be considered a cornerstone of democratic societies and effective governance. Recently, it has been shown that social contagions can shape some forms of consensus-based collective decision-making (Horsevad et al., Nature Communications, (2022)13:1442). The topology of the network underpinning such processes plays a key role in promoting or hampering simple contagions—based on pairwise interactions—and complex contagions, which require social influence and reinforcement. However, considering the ubiquitous scalefreeness of most social networks, it becomes imperative to delve into how this particular characteristic of networks impacts the dynamics of social contagions and the subsequent group consensus. Two specific aspects are worth analyzing: (i) understanding the interplay between scalefreeness and the transition from a simple to a complex contagion, and (ii) exploring the specificities associated with highly clustered networks. Here, we consider two distinct collective decision-making processes: (1) the classical linear threshold model, and (2) the leader-follower consensus model—a paradigmatic approach to collective decision-making—to systematically explore the transition from simple to complex contagions in the presence of a tunable family of synthetic scale-free networks. In contrast to previous findings, our results show that scale-free networks can, under certain conditions, support the spread of complex contagions. These findings carry profound implications for the development of innovative strategies aimed at fostering consensus within social groups. Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing Physical sciences/Physics Biological sciences/Systems biology Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files ScaleFreeSocialContagionsSM.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7635636","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":539531824,"identity":"cb18713f-d7b6-413a-8a38-6500d86036e0","order_by":0,"name":"Mohammad Savari","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Ottawa","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohammad","middleName":"","lastName":"Savari","suffix":""},{"id":539531825,"identity":"4cb577d4-8b92-4cff-bba1-41239b288d38","order_by":1,"name":"Nikolaj Horsevad","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Energinet (Denmark)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nikolaj","middleName":"","lastName":"Horsevad","suffix":""},{"id":539531826,"identity":"47ae8813-7586-4b6a-8329-a703b6d23fa3","order_by":2,"name":"Robert E. 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